


Tell Me A Story

by Nihonkikuasa211



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: Childhood, Discussions of Child Neglect, Discussions of Drug Addiction, Gen, Heavy Angst, Past Drug Addiction, Past Male Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 18:24:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6162562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nihonkikuasa211/pseuds/Nihonkikuasa211
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the early hours of the morning, Angus asks Mario to tell him a story. Post 1x18.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Me A Story

**Author's Note:**

> Be warned as this story contains child neglect, references to drug addiction, and prostitution. If no one if deterred by any of this triggers, I hope you enjoy this rather depressing story of mine.

                                                                      _Tell Me A Story_

           

 

           "Tell me a story,” Angus rasped.

            Angus was lying in his bed, almost near tears as he called the one person who could possibly understand what he was going through.

            Mario.

            It hadn’t escaped him that it had been Mario who had told Mike that the younger resident was abusing Adderall. Perhaps if he had been on the medication longer, Angus would have been furious. But he wasn’t. And foolishly, he had believed it was over.

            It wasn’t over. The cravings came, so strong that Angus had to grit his teeth not think about the medication that would have taken over his existence. Insomnia often haunted the first year resident, making him revisit the memories that he had – from his earliest memory of riding of Mike’s shoulders to now, calling Mario as fear filled in his chest. Both his brother and the darker-haired resident said it wasn’t healthy to regret and think about the mistakes you made. _“Just call me, Angus,”_ Mario had stated one time when the resident was almost near tears at thought of seeing a psychiatrist. _“Just call me, okay?”_

On the other end, Angus could only hear silence. For a moment, guilt and sorrow choked in Angus’ throat. What was he doing? Asking a friend, and a former drug addict, to tell him a story? No one knew very much about Mario, not even Angus, and now here he was –

            “A long time ago, there was a boy.” Angus could hear Mario take a breath, and could imagine the resident look down on the ground before speaking, as he always did when he was about to say something painful. “The boy had no one. He didn’t know what love was because it hadn’t ever been given to him. His parents…his parents were too into crack to even notice him. The boy often went without food, without warmth, and dirty clothes.” There was a heavy pause. “Then, one day, there was a kind lady who actually seemed to care for him. The three days he spent with her was the happiest…time in his childhood, but then – ” Here there was a pause, and Angus could hear Mario’s breathing deepen for a moment before he continued. “His parents were found, and he had to go back home.”

            “What happened then?” Angus rasped.

            “One day, the boy came home.” There was a slight shaking in Mario’s voice, and Angus wanted to reach out and comfort his friend as the young man could hear the sharp breaths coming from him. “And…and…he found them.”

            “Mario –” Angus said.

            “He found them already dead,” the voice on the other end stated thickly, decades-old pain echoing in his voice. “Overdosed, lying in their own shit.” There was a long pause. “That was when the boy realized that he couldn’t depend on anyone anymore. He could only protect himself, and not allow anyone to see him. When his grandmother gained custody of the boy who was too thin, and was considered a troublemaker even then, he was purposely an asshole to her.” A soft, empty laugh escaped from the voice on the other end, and Angus found himself swallowing deeply. “Until she found his stash. Then, he knew he had to leave.”

            “When did the boy start using, Mario?” Angus whispered. He received no answer. “Mario,” he whispered, almost painfully gentle at the sound of the heavy silence, “when did the boy start using?”

            “Cocaine,” was Mario’s only reply. “He was twelve.”

            Angus swallowed and attempted to breathe deeply at the thought…at the thought…

            “Soon even that wasn’t enough,” Mario continued. His voice was oddly vacant now, as if he had spent his emotion on telling the beginning of the story. “He took anything – anything to feel the kind of pain he was in. And, well,” there was a heavy pause and Angus tried to control whatever emotion he was feeling – there were too man emotions to pinpoint what exactly he was feeling. “And…he lived on the streets, begging. Doing…anything to get the drugs that would help him feel _something._ ”

            “Did he become a drug dealer?” Angus whispered. _Please be what happened._ His mind flashed to the numerous phycology classes that he had taken in medical school, even in high school, of hearing over and over again that addicts would do anything for the substances that called to them.

            “No.” There was a short bark of laughter, and Angus shuddered. It wasn’t a laughter that he associated with Mario, one that was simply pain and heartbreak. “No, of course not. The boy had seen what drug dealers did to his parents, and wouldn’t allow himself to be that kind of person.”

            “He sold his body for drugs, Angus.” A heavy gasp tore from the light brown-haired resident’s throat, and he tried to keep his hands steady as Mario’s – _Mario’s_ – voice echoed in his mind. _Oh God,_ Angus thought. His left hand grasped the phone so tightly he thought it would break, and he swallowed the hard lump in his throat. _Oh my God…Mario…_ He felt sick. Angus felt physically sick, and his breathing echoed in his head as Mario continued. “Men, women, fellow drug addicts, it didn’t matter. It was a long time ago, so –”

            “Long time ago?” Angus yelled. He was unprepared for the amount of rage and agony in his voice as he spoke – almost screamed – into the phone. His heart clenched painfully, and not from the cravings or the haunted images in his mind. No, it wasn’t that.

            “Long time ago?” Angus repeated, the rage increasing as he thought about of what Mario could have gone through – the risks, the infections, the abuse – “Mario –” he choked.

            “It doesn’t matter now,” the other voice rasped. Angus couldn’t hide anymore that he was crying. Thick tears trailed down his cheeks, and his breathing started to become ragged as his right hand went through his hair. “It took a long time, but the boy became a man. And…he realized there was…something else. He didn’t have to live like his parents. He didn’t have to die like them.”

            Angus could hear Mario’s breathing from the other end. It was ragged as his own. There was a faint sob that came from the light-brown haired resident, and Mario remained silent as Angus continued to cry.

            “The man thought that he could trust no one. That he didn’t need anyone. But then…” There was a sniff, and Angus’ tears paused as he heard Mario starting to pace, and he heard a harsh swallow. “Then he found this amazing, gentle, happy-go-lucky man who wouldn’t leave him alone. This man was so…genuine that he cannot believe that he is crying over such a fucked-up story.”

            “That boy,” Angus gasped. Tears were falling onto the floor, and Angus took a deep breath to force himself to calm. “That boy…was you, wasn’t it, Mario?”

            “Yeah.” A broken sound came from Mario, and Angus continued to cry, a soft cry coming from his lips as he heard the faint sound of crying on the other end. “I…never…”

            “Told anyone, did you?” Angus whispered. His blue eyes blinked, and his hand wiped away whatever tears that were trying to break free. “You never told anyone this, did you? None of this.” A half-laugh and sob tore from him. “And yet you told me. Me, Mario!”

            “Why me?” Angus whispered.

            “Because.” There was a hoarseness in Mario’s voice, and Angus heard the sound of his friend clearing his throat. “You’re the first person…that ever mattered to me.”

            “I almost lost myself to addiction,” Mario whispered into the phone as Angus heard his friend stop pacing. “I lost my parents, and never got to know who they truly were. Addiction almost took everything away from me, Angus.”

            Angus closed his eyes for a moment, thinking of what he had heard. Mario…had opened up to him. He had told him so much about the dark secrets of his past. His dark, dark past that continued to haunt him. Angus thought back to of how Mario seemed to know so much about every street drug in existence, and of how…and of the dark-haired resident’s interactions with uncommon patients’ in the ER: prostitutes, drug addicts, and so many ghosts that no one was willing to see until it was almost too late.

            “I won’t let it take you away from me too, Angus.” There was a ragged breath on the other end. “I won’t let anything that happened to _me_ happen to _you_ , Angus.”

            The two were silent for a moment. Angus allowed his breathing to come under control again, and swallowed the tears that had entered his mouth as he heard Mario’s breathing on the other end.

            “You’re the amazing one, you know.” Angus kept his voice soft, measuring his voice carefully as he continued to hear the sound of Mario’s breathing, deepening more and more as Angus continued to speak. “So strong because there’s no way in hell I could have gone through what you went through and kept my sanity intact. And I know you now,” he whispered. “I know you more than I did before, and…I’m so glad that I got to meet you. Because…I won’t let this drug take anything away from you anymore. Anything away that is important to us.”

            A lone tear streaked down Angus’ cheek, and a half-smile formed on the resident's face.

            “I won’t let it take anything else away from me, anymore. I won’t let it take anything away, especially the sense of belonging I feel when we work…when I’m beside you.” A soft sigh escaped from Angus. “Or the family that we’ve created. Malaya, with her sweet smile and gentleness despite of all that has happened to her, and Christa, who’s like a big sister to us. I don’t care what she says, she and Dr. Hudson are going to get back together and then we can celebrate. She deserves some happiness, don’t you think, Mario?” There was silence on the other end. “Personally, I think it was Dr. Hudson that helped you more to get your head out of your ass and start thinking about others. His teaching style is different than what we’re used to, and he’s kind. Mike started laughing so hard when I told him that Dr. Hudson was a true English gentleman.” A true smile echoed across Angus’ face as he thought about his family – _their_ family – that they had found one day on one September day in Los Angeles. “Then there’s Daddy and Mama. There’s no home without them, and…I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon. Angels means so much to us.”

            “Mario?”

            Angus’ eyes widened as continued to hear Mario’s deep breathing. It was breathing most associated with sleep. _Oh,_ Angus thought. _He’s asleep._ It was four o’clock in the morning after a fifteen-hour shift. His friend, who had told him the deepest part of him and cried with him, had fallen asleep as Angus had been speaking to him. Angus softly laugh, never thinking that Mario out of all people would fall asleep to the sound of his voice. _Never thought we would be having this conversation either._ His blue eyes blinked, and Angus continued to lean the phone against his ear as he heard Mario’s deep breathing as he slept.

            A couple of minutes later, Angus too fell asleep. The phone was still against his ear, and the young man was lying on haphazardly on his side as his mind soothed to the sound of Mario’s deep sleeping breaths.

            Angus slept better than he had since that terrible day.

            There were no nightmares.  


End file.
